DARTMOUTH needs more hospital beds than what is being proposed under a new model of care for health services, according to district and county councillor Jonathan Hawkins.

He said he believed the majority of people in the town accepted the creation of a new umbrella wellbeing centre at Townstal was the way forward, with the inevitable closure of the Dartmouth and Kingswear Hospital.

But just four dedicated beds to replace the existing 16 was unacceptable, he said.

Speaking at a meeting of the South Hams Council’s overview and scrutiny panel on Thursday last week, Cllr Hawkins appealed to the South Devon and Torbay Clinical Comm­iss­ioning Group to listen to what people were saying.

Nicola Jones, NHS manager at New Devon CCG, said she was aware there had been some criticism of the consultation questionnaire but it was impossible to continue with the current model of care as changes had to be made.

Health chiefs have published a series of proposals to stem a £16m shortfall. Under the proposals, Dartmouth’s GP practice; the clinics; the base for home care support; the beds for rehabilitation and palliative care; minor injuries care; nursing home care; and voluntary organis­ations, such as Dartmouth Caring; and a pharmacy would all be under one roof.

The NHS has been in talks with the owner of the River View Care Centre on Victory Road and has agreed a 35-year-lease to accommodate the services.

The NHS will also take over the responsibility for the care home.

Cllr Hawkins said Dartmouth hospital was very important to residents in the town and surrounding area but he believed the majority of people accepted it would now close, with the hope that better facilities would be provided.

‘However, residents are concerned that just four dedicated beds being proposed to replace the existing 16 isn’t enough,’ he said.

He said the town was left feeling ‘very sceptical’ after already suffering from the loss of X-ray facilities and more recently the closure of its minor injuries unit.

‘We know you [the South Devon and Torbay CCG] are under pressure but Dartmouth is very spread out and isolated,’ he said. ‘Once the ferry goes off in the evenings, the drive around is long and windy and I dread to think the time it would take an ambulance to get from Dartmouth to Torbay or Plymouth. We hope you will listen this time, we really do.’

Cllr Hawkins said his own 87-year-old mother had suffered a stroke 10 weeks ago and he knew from personal experience how people wanted to recover in their own homes but, even with adaptations this often wasn’t possible, as more specialised hospital care was sometimes needed.

‘I question you closing beds in our community hospitals,’ he said. ‘Providing us with four is not good enough, we need more.’

Cllr Julian Brazil said channelling people to do outreach work was a nice idea but it didn’t work in practice.

‘As the old adage goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions,’ he said.

Cllr Judy Pearce said she believed the proposed model of care was more suited to an urban population and if hospitals had to close then a ‘travel lodge’ model might be more appropriate until people were back on their feet. She said that in order to deliver good, safe home care, a greater budget was needed than closing four hospitals as outlined and shifting costs over to social services was ‘effectively privatising’ care at home by making it chargeable.

Rebeca Foweraker, head of integration at South Devon and Torbay CCG, said, it was, of course, appropriate for patients to be in hospital when they needed critical services and care beds were also provided as an intermediate service.

But the NHS strongly believed that in terms of general community care, people should only be admitted to hospital when medically necessary and generally people recovered better at home.

She said the proposals were all about people rather than buildings and the aim was to create services that were more effective, closer to home and affordable.

But it was very challenging to balance those changes with the needs and wishes within the community, she accepted.

People have until Wednesday, November 23, to make their feelings about the proposals known to the CCG.